JP2010139458A - Vehicle failure management system - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to make it easy to refer to a past failure history when repairing a failure and to easily identify the cause of the failure.
Therefore, in a vehicle failure management system having a plurality of control units capable of communicating via a communication line, the plurality of control units includes failure information storage means for storing failure information in a failure information storage area; In response to the failure information deletion command from the failure diagnosis tester, before the failure information deletion, the failure information deletion command reception date and time and the failure information stored in each failure information storage area are not used as a set of new failure history information. Failure history information storage means stored in the storage area, failure information deletion means for erasing the failure information stored in the failure information storage area after storing the new failure history information, and storage according to the information retrieval command from the failure diagnosis tester Information retrieval means for retrieving the corresponding failure history information from the failure history information that has been made.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle failure management system, and more particularly to a vehicle failure management system in which a past failure history can be easily referred to when a failure is repaired and the cause of the failure can be easily identified.

According to the laws and regulations of each country, failure diagnosis of the vehicle itself is performed, a warning light is turned on when a failure is detected, failure information is stored in a control unit (also simply referred to as “controller”), and a failure conforming to serial communication standards It is stipulated that this information can be read and erased by a diagnostic tester, and is used to specify fault diagnosis.
Note that this information is generally deleted after repair.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-9926 JP-A-7-218391 JP-A-8-110232 JP 2004-38388 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-199096 JP 2007-213114 A

By the way, in the conventional vehicle failure management system, the system is complicated, and it is very difficult to identify the cause of the failure. In many cases, the failure is detected again after the repair, and the repair is required again.
Therefore, it is very useful to store the failure history and repair history of the corresponding vehicle, and the following three measures have been proposed.
(1) Using a failure diagnosis tester, repair information, part information, and the like are written in an empty area of the in-vehicle controller (see Patent Document 1 above).
(2) Car repair information and the like are written in the car navigation system (see Patent Document 3 above).
(3) Maintenance information and the like are registered in the server and managed collectively with a personal computer (also referred to as “PC”) (see Patent Document 6 above).
However, the above-mentioned measures (1) to (3), which are currently proposed, require a special environment such as a special network environment or a special operation such as an operation of writing information to a controller or a PC. There is.

  It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to easily refer to a past failure history when repairing a failure, to easily identify the cause of the failure, to shorten the time required for the repair, and to avoid unnecessary repairs. To realize a management system.

  Therefore, in order to eliminate the inconvenience described above, the present invention provides a vehicle failure management system having a plurality of control units that can communicate with each other via a communication line. The failure information storage means for storing the failure information in the failure information storage area and the date and time of receipt of the failure information deletion command before the failure information deletion in response to the failure information deletion command from the failure diagnosis tester connected to the communication line And failure information stored in each failure information storage area as a set of new failure history information, and stored in the failure information storage area after storing the new failure history information. The failure information erasing means for erasing the failure information stored in the failure history information storage means in response to an information retrieval command from the failure diagnosis tester Characterized in that it comprises a retrieval information retrieval unit fault history information corresponding from the failure history information.

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in a vehicle failure management system having a plurality of control units that can communicate with each other via a communication line, the plurality of control units receive failure information held by each control unit. According to the failure information deletion command from the failure information storage means stored in the failure information storage area and the failure diagnosis tester connected to the communication line, the failure information deletion command reception date and time and each failure information storage before the failure information deletion Failure history information stored in the unused storage area as a set of new failure history information as a set of new failure history information, and the failure information stored in the failure information storage area after the new failure history information is stored The failure information erasure means and the failure history information stored in the failure history information storage means according to the information retrieval command from the failure diagnosis tester. And an information retrieval means for retrieving log information.
Therefore, when repairing a failure, it becomes possible to easily refer to the past failure history, and it becomes easier to identify the cause of the failure. Therefore, the time required for repair can be shortened. Also, unnecessary repairs due to misjudgment can be avoided.
In addition, the contents of the instruction “deletion of fault diagnosis” that is usually performed after repair completion by a dealer or other repair person has the contents of deleting the fault information after storing the fault information to be deleted as a new fault history. Therefore, it is not necessary for the repairer to perform a separate operation to store the failure history. Therefore, a new man-hour for storing the failure history is not newly added.
Furthermore, since all operations are performed by the failure diagnosis tester, it is not necessary to prepare a separate operation input device. When referring to the failure history, the failure history is displayed on the display unit of the failure diagnosis tester, so there is no need to prepare a display device separately. In addition, a network for connecting such devices is not required.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 2, 1 is a vehicle, 2 is a failure management system for the vehicle 1, and 3 is a plurality of control units (also referred to as “electronic control devices”) of the failure management system 2 mounted on the vehicle 1.
The control unit 3 controls an object to be controlled by a stored program. For example, an engine controller that controls an engine, a transmission controller that controls an automatic transmission, an airbag controller that controls an airbag, power steering, and the like. There is a power steering controller etc.
When a plurality of control units 3, for example, two first and second control units 3a and 3b are mounted on the vehicle 1, the first and second control units 3a and 3b are installed as shown in FIG. For example, it is disposed in the vicinity of the front wheel 4 on the front side of the vehicle 1 and in an engine room (not shown).
At this time, the first and second control units 3a and 3b which are the control unit 3 are connected via a communication line, for example, an in-vehicle network (also referred to as “in-vehicle LAN”, LOCAL AREA NETWORK) 5 such as CAN (CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK). And connect to each other so that they can communicate with each other.
The in-vehicle network 5 is provided with a vehicle-side connector 6-1 of the connector device 6 connected thereto.
The vehicle-side connector 6-1 is provided with an external device-side connector 6-2 of the connector device 6 so that it can be connected and disconnected.
The external device side connector 6-2 is provided by connecting a failure diagnosis tester 8 which is an external device provided outside the vehicle 1 by an external communication line 7 including a serial communication line or a CAN (CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK) communication line. .

A plurality of control units 3 mounted on the vehicle 1, for example, first and second control units 3a and 3b, are connected and provided via the in-vehicle network 5, as shown in FIGS.
At this time, the first control unit 3a includes failure information storage means 9, failure history information storage means 10, failure information erasure means 11, and information search means 12, as shown in FIG.
The second control unit 3b also has various means, like the first control unit 3a described above.
That is, the first and second control units 3a and 3b, which are the plurality of control units 3, have a failure information storage means 9 for storing failure information of each control unit 3 in a failure information storage area, and the communication line. In response to a failure information deletion command from a failure diagnosis tester 8 connected to a certain in-vehicle network 5, before failure information deletion, the reception date and time of the failure information deletion command and the failure information stored in each failure information storage area are stored. As a set of new failure history information, failure history information storage means 10 for storing in an unused storage area, failure information deletion means 11 for deleting failure information stored in the failure information storage area after storing new failure history information, In response to an information retrieval command from the failure diagnosis tester 8, the corresponding failure history information is retrieved from the failure history information stored in the failure history information storage means 10. And a that information retrieval unit 12.
More specifically, the failure information storage means 9 of the first and second control units 3a and 3b, which are the plurality of control units 3, uses the failure information held by each of the first and second control units 3a and 3b as failure information. It has a function of storing in the storage area.
Further, the failure history information storage means 10 receives the failure information deletion command when a failure information deletion command is output from the failure diagnosis tester 8 to the first and second control units 3a and 3b via the in-vehicle network 5. The function of storing the reception date and time of the erase command and the failure information stored in each failure information storage area as a set of new failure history information, and storing this set of new failure history information in the unused storage area before erasing the failure information have.
Further, the failure information erasure unit 11 has a function of erasing the failure information stored in the failure information storage area after the new failure history information is stored by the failure history information storage unit 10.
Furthermore, when the information retrieval command is output from the failure diagnosis tester 8, the information retrieval unit 12 corresponds to the failure history information stored by the failure history information storage unit 10 in response to the information retrieval command. It has a function of retrieving failure history information.

One of the control units 3 is a navigation device.
That is, as the control unit 3, for example, an engine controller, a transmission controller, an airbag controller, a power steering controller, and the like can be considered, and a navigation device is included in one of the plurality of control units 3 and a storage medium of the navigation device is stored. The free area is used as a storage area for new failure history information.

The failure history information storage means 10 has a function of storing failure history information in both the control unit 3 storing the failure information and the control unit 3 other than the control unit 3 storing the failure information. .
When there are three or more control units 3, when the first control unit becomes a control unit storing failure information, a control unit other than the control unit storing failure information is selected. As a measure, it is also possible to search for a free area of each candidate control unit and determine a storage location according to the size of the free area.

  Next, the operation will be described.

First, the failure information storage method control flowchart of the failure management system 2 in FIG. 1 will be described.
When the failure information storage method control program starts (101), the process proceeds to processing (102) for receiving a failure information deletion command (also simply referred to as “command”) from the failure diagnosis tester 8.
Then, the process proceeds to the determination (103) of whether or not the received command of the control unit (also simply referred to as “controller” or “vehicle controller”) 3 is a command for erasing the failure information.
If this determination (103) is YES, the control unit 3 as the controller shifts to a process (104) for saving the command execution date and time and failure information stored in the current control unit 3 in another area.
At this time, the process (104) is performed when the control unit 3 that has received the command stores the corresponding data in its own free memory area, for example, other engine controller, transmission controller, airbag controller, power steering controller. The corresponding data may be transmitted and stored (also referred to as “save”) in the empty memory area and the empty area of the storage medium such as the navigation device.
Further, after the control unit 3 executes the command execution date and time (104) for storing the failure information stored in the current control unit 3 in another area, the process proceeds to the processing (105) for executing the received failure information deletion command. After this process (105), the process proceeds to the end (106) of the failure information storage method control program. If the determination (103) is NO, the control unit 3 proceeds to processing (105) for executing a received information search command (also referred to as “read command”) from the failure diagnosis tester 8. After this process (105), the program shifts to the end of program (106).

The repair date and time of the failure management system 2 in FIG. 4 and a failure information reading method control flowchart will be described.
When the repair date / time and failure information reading method control program starts (201), the process proceeds to processing (202) for receiving a read command from the failure diagnosis tester 8.
Then, the control unit 3 shifts to processing (203) in which information stored in another area is transmitted to the failure diagnosis tester 8 or the navigation device. After this processing (203), repair date and time, failure information reading method control The program is terminated (204).

Further, the repair date and time of the failure management system 2 of FIG. 5 and the failure information erasing method control flowchart will be described.
When the repair date / time and failure information erasing method control program starts (301), the process proceeds to processing (302) for receiving a failure information erasing command (also referred to as “erase command”) from the failure diagnosis tester 8.
Then, the control unit 3 shifts to a process (303) for deleting information stored in another area, and after this process (303), shifts to a repair date and time, a failure information erasing method control program end (304). To do.

Thereby, in the vehicle failure management system 2 having a plurality of control units 3 that can communicate with each other via the in-vehicle network 5 that is a communication line, the plurality of control units 3 includes failure information that each control unit 3 has. In accordance with a failure information deletion command from a failure diagnosis tester 8 connected to the in-vehicle network 5 serving as the communication line, before the failure information is deleted. The failure history information storage means 10 that stores the date and time of receipt of the erase command and the failure information stored in each failure information storage area as a set of new failure history information in the unused storage area, and a failure after the new failure history information is stored In response to the information retrieval command from the failure information erasing means 11 for erasing the failure information stored in the information storage area and the failure diagnosis tester 8, Serial and a failure history information storage unit 10 information retrieval unit 12 to retrieve the failure history information corresponding from the stored fault history information by.
Therefore, when repairing a failure, it becomes possible to easily refer to the past failure history, and it becomes easier to identify the cause of the failure. Therefore, the time required for repair can be shortened. Also, unnecessary repairs due to misjudgment can be avoided.
In addition, the contents of the command “deletion of failure diagnosis” that is usually performed after repair completion by a dealer or other repair person has the content of deleting the failure information after storing the failure information to be deleted as a new failure history. Therefore, it is not necessary for the repairer to perform a separate operation to store the failure history. Therefore, a new man-hour for storing the failure history is not newly added.
Further, since all operations are performed by the failure diagnosis tester 8, there is no need to separately prepare an operation input device. When referring to the failure history, the failure history is displayed on the display unit of the failure diagnosis tester, so there is no need to prepare a display device separately. In addition, a network for connecting such devices is not required.

One of the control units 3 is a navigation device.
Therefore, since the navigation device includes a display device, the retrieved failure history information can be displayed. Thereby, in addition to the failure diagnosis tester 8, a plurality of display devices are provided, so that convenience during repair can be improved.

Further, the failure history information storage means 10 stores failure history information in both the control unit 3 in which the failure information is stored and the control unit 3 other than the control unit 3 in which the failure information is stored.
Therefore, even if the failure history cannot be stored in the control unit 3 in which the failure information is stored due to lack of storage area or malfunction, it can be stored in a control unit 3 other than the control unit 3 in which the failure information is stored. If there is a special area, it can be stored.
In particular, since the navigation device often includes a large-capacity storage device, even if a failure history of another control unit 3 is stored, the function of the navigation device is not adversely affected.

3 is a flowchart for controlling a repair date and time of failure information of the failure management system showing an embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle failure management system. It is a schematic explanatory drawing of a some control unit. 5 is a flowchart for controlling a repair date and time of a failure management system and a method for reading failure information. 7 is a flowchart for controlling a repair date and time and a failure information erasing method of the failure management system.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle 2 Failure management system 3 Control unit (it is also called "electronic control apparatus")
3a, 3b First and second control units 4 Front wheels 5 In-vehicle network (also referred to as “in-vehicle LAN” LOCAL AREA NETWORK)
6 connector device 6-1 vehicle side connector 6-2 external device side connector 7 vehicle communication line 8 failure diagnosis tester 9 failure information storage means 10 failure history information storage means 11 failure information erasure means 12 information search means

Claims (3)

  In a vehicle failure management system having a plurality of control units that can communicate with each other via a communication line, the plurality of control units stores failure information of each control unit in a failure information storage area. In response to the failure information deletion command from the failure diagnosis tester connected to the communication line, before the failure information deletion, the reception date and time of the failure information deletion command and the failure information stored in each failure information storage area As a set of new failure history information, failure history information storage means for storing in the unused storage area, failure information erasure means for deleting failure information stored in the failure information storage area after storing the new failure history information, and the failure In response to an information search command from the diagnostic tester, the corresponding failure history information is searched from the failure history information stored by the failure history information storage means. Vehicle failure management system, characterized in that it comprises a that information retrieval unit.   The vehicle fault management system according to claim 1, wherein one of the control units is a navigation device.   3. The failure history information storage unit stores failure history information in both a control unit in which failure information is stored and a control unit other than the control unit in which failure information is stored. Vehicle failure management system described in 1.

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